A VALUABLE INVENTION.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3677, 7 October 1880, Page 3

A VALUABLE INVENTION.

We (London Times) have just seen some specimens of the results to be obtained from a new method of waterproofing, which promises to be of the greatest possible utility. The process is extremely simple, and consists in passing the articles through a press containing the composition by which the desired result is effected. By this process many yards of silk can: be rendered completely waterproof in a minute or two, without the slightest injury to or apparent change in the texture or color. Indeed, the colors are, we believe, by this process rendered permanent. All sorts of textures can be treated in the same way—paper, straw baM, bookbinding, leather &c. Two pieces of blue silk, one subject to the process and the other not, were exposed for a few seconds to a stream of water. In the case of the water-proofed piece the water ran off as from a duck's back, while 'theother piece was saturated. One side of a piece of blotting paper subjected to the process was as impenetrable to moisture as steel, while the other side retained its normal absorbtive property. A piece of the most delicate rose tinted tissue paper, after being subjected to the process, remained as impervious to moisture as if it had been' indiarubber. But, perhapsy a great feature of this new process is the fact that while it renders articles perfectly waterproof, they remain .as impenetrable to the atmosphere as ever, an advantage which, it is believed, no previous systeem of water-proofing can claim. The new process is said to be the invention of a retired ofßcer.